


Face-Saving Promises, Whispered Like Prayers

by stpitbull



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-29
Updated: 2012-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-02 17:13:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stpitbull/pseuds/stpitbull





	Face-Saving Promises, Whispered Like Prayers

"How long does this usually take?"   
  
Joshua flicked his eyes over to Daniel, then resumed the task of removing his armor. "For myself, not very long," he said. "But I have mastered the task over years of repetition. Help me with my shirt."   
  
Daniel stopped fiddling with the roll of fresh bandages, setting it aside and moving to gingerly slide the white shirt from Joshua's shoulders, revealing an expanse of bandages snug around his torso, his arms.   
  
"Did you have something urgent to attend to?" Joshua asked.   
  
"No," Daniel said. "Just would rather get this over with."   
  
Joshua gave a knowing sigh that was a little too close to condescending for Daniel's taste. "I don't like this any more than you do, Daniel, but I hope you realize the sizeable amount of trust I'm placing in you," he murmured meaningfully.   
  
"I'm aware," Daniel said tersely. "You've only mentioned it a few dozen times."   
  
Joshua allowed himself a throaty chuckle, taking the shirt from Daniel's hands and folding it neatly. He rolled his strained shoulder, stretching his left arm, out of commission after breaking an unexpected fall earlier. The reason he needed assistance.   
  
"Only to the waist," he had explained when he reluctantly approached Daniel with the task. "I can handle my legs."   
  
Daniel listened as Joshua explained the pattern of bandaging, the separate pieces of their mutual task. He was experienced -- he could work efficiently, and it would not take long. Daniel's fingertips alighted on the first knotting, and he said, "Last chance to replace me with one of your Dead Horses."   
  
"I appreciate your apprehension, but none of them match your knowledge or experience," Joshua said, his back to Daniel. "Aside from that, I'd... rather they not see what's under the bandages."   
  
Daniel snorted. "So it's a matter of vanity. Good to know." He set to work, and muttered, "Also good to know you don't care if  _I_  see what's under the bandages."   
  
"Before you let your ego bruise too severely, remember my standing in the tribe," Joshua said, a catch breaking into his calm voice as the first thatch of his naked skin met air. "I'd rather keep my scars my own."   
  
"I reiterate: vanity."   
  
Joshua ignored him, of course, and Daniel quietly set focus to his task, stripping one arm first. The cave was quiet save for the crackling of lit torches, and their chorus was soon joined by soft noises escaping Joshua. Noises of pain, Daniel recognized, and he grew aware of the heady lurch in his stomach at every sharp intake of breath, every potential cry of pain being stifled back into a grunt.   
  
"Lift your arm," he commanded, breath catching as Joshua obeyed.    
  
He undid the right arm's bandages where they looped Joshua's shoulder and chest, finishing and discarding them and moving on to Joshua's left arm. He unraveled these bandages at half the speed, drawing out a wider menagerie of guttural noises from Joshua as his pain was prolonged, Daniel feeling a surge deep within reacting in particular to the low sounds that came from his scarred throat, the way his deep, steady breathing was growing more labored.   
  
"Be still," he said, and Joshua obeyed.

Daniel would not even be able to explain to himself the next day why he was doing this, why he was drawing out the process. Perhaps he could blame curiosity. It was very intriguing, really, his body's reactions to those of Joshua's. The way every powerful intake of breath on Joshua's part, so clearly from a pain Daniel could never comprehend, was making his pulse quicken, his heart throb. Curiosity. That's why he placed a firm hand palm-flat on Joshua's newly exposed arm and slowly curled his fingers around the bicep, drawing out a sudden, powerful exhale.   
  
"Are you really in much pain?" Daniel asked quietly.   
  
"Yes," Joshua responded in a ragged breath, neck erect, keeping his gaze straight ahead.   
  
Daniel made a soft sound of consideration, then loosened his grip, slowly dragging his hand down the length of Joshua's arm at a feather-light touch. He was rewarded with a sharp strangled keen of unmasked pain, Joshua's entire body tensing and arching back slightly. Daniel brought his hand to a halt on Joshua's, where smaller bandages still lay, and listened to the man catch his breath.   
  
"Keep going," Joshua said after a moment. "Please."   
  
Daniel savored the agonizingly slow exposing of Joshua's torso, every sound he made, every involuntary twitch and lurch of his body, scar tissue muddled and red in the cave's dim firelight. He was careful, though, in his slow ministrations, carefully peeling off each bandage until the very last stretch of his current strip, the last edge ending at the small of Joshua's back, at the start of his hips just above his jeans, caught tight against his skin. Daniel paused, considering the last few inches, feeling an odd heat coiling in his belly as he fingered at the used bandage in his hand, and he yanked.   
  
Lord help him.   
  
A sharp scratching sound accompanied the unexpected move and was quickly followed by a genuine cry from Joshua, who bent forward slightly and shuddered before rising and falling back on his unsure feet, softly colliding into Daniel. And what an inappropriate time for Daniel to recognize that he was rock hard, the firm bulge in his trousers digging into Joshua's ass.   
  
Joshua stilled completely, a cold wash in Daniel's stomach as he realized the man  _had_  to feel his erection, there was just no way he couldn't. Daniel's ears were filled with rushing blood and the sound of Joshua's labored breathing, and after a moment of stillness he brought a hand around to rest on Joshua's stomach. The resulting groan, equal parts pain and desire, surged through him with a sudden bolt of heat, and he tilted his head to press his lips into Joshua's shoulder, the scar tissue puckered and angry under his mouth. Joshua panted heavily and rocked back against him, and Daniel could only give a groan of his own and grind forward, the hand on Joshua's stomach pressing in harder and earning him a truly delicious whimper. A beautiful sound of weakness that he had caused.   
  
Daniel unraveled the bandages on Joshua's throat and face, letting them fall aside as he trailed slow, bruising kisses up Joshua's neck. His lips brushed against the jagged shell of Joshua's ear as he growled, "You deserve this."   
  
"I know," Joshua panted reverently, "I  _know_ ."   
  
Daniel's own voice was rough and foreign to him, and he didn't know who this beast  _was_ , speaking for him, as he rolled hard against Joshua's ass, brought his other hand up to rest on Joshua's throat as he purred, "You deserve every last moment of this."   
  
"I do," Joshua said, like the words were heavy in his throat. His breath hitched and his head fell back against Daniel's shoulder, rocking shamelessly back against his clothed cock. "Please. More. I do. More."

Daniel held him by the throat as he one-handedly unraveled more bandages, little care for precision anymore, not when his head was swimming with Joshua's soft cries and low groans, when heat was piercing him again and again. Daniel discarded the last of the bandages, Joshua's head fully exposed, and he turned the man around, catching only the sight of shocking blue eyes before taking his face in his hands and claiming Joshua's mouth. He swallowed the muffled keen from skin on inflamed skin, felt Joshua's body shaking as he slid his hands roughly down his back, cupping his denim-clad ass and grinding into him. Joshua's hands fumbled messily to find purchase on his shoulders, hips desperately rocking forward to meet his forceful rutting and growling into his mouth with need. Daniel suppressed his own moans in favor of hearing Joshua's, nosing at his jaw until he tilted his head back and exposed his throat, Daniel kissing and sucking at the mess of tender skin and scar tissue as Joshua's raw cries filled his ears like a gospel, still-bandaged fingertips digging into his hair, tightening at his laden hiss that Joshua has earned every second of pain.   
  
A moment of poor balance and they toppled to the ground, Joshua landing on his exposed back. Blazingly blue eyes shot wide open and teeth clenched as he stifled of roar of white-hot pain. The noise fractured into tight animalistic whines punctuated with sucking gasps for air, entire body stiffened and heaving. Daniel placed a hand on his chest, feeling the rise and fall, his pounding heart, and Joshua arched into the touch, eyelids shutting closed and mouth opening in a silent prayer.   
  
The sight went straight to Daniel's cock and he covered Joshua's prone body with his own, looping an arm under the man's thigh and hitching his leg up and grinding down  _hard_  on him. Joshua arched up to meet him, throat relenting into a series of wracked wet gasps as his senses struggled frantically to process the warring sensations of pain and pleasure and Daniel and the dirt.   
  
"Please," he begged in a choked-off sob, Daniel burying his face in his neck to smother it with raw kisses, "more."


End file.
